One Way Latter-day Saints Seek Personal Guidance from God

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Following the biblical tradition of seeking personalized blessings from God, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have the opportunity to receive what are called “patriarchal blessings.” For Latter-day Saints, these blessings include words of comfort, guidance and, sometimes, cautions.

Readers of the Bible will be familiar with blessings pronounced upon Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others. These blessings provided those receiving them with a connection to heaven, and guidance in their lives.

During the April 2023 General Conference of the Church, Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita, General Authority Seventy, spoke about the importance of obtaining a patriarchal blessing. Elder Yamashita emphasized the personal revelation and guidance that comes from such a blessing.

The members of the Cook Islands Avarua District heard his message very clearly.

During a recent visit by leaders of the Church’s New Zealand Auckland Mission to the Cook Islands for the district’s semi-annual conference, Auckland New Zealand Harbour Stake Patriarch Steven Stebbings, from Orewa, New Zealand, received an invitation to join them, to give patriarchal blessings to Church members.

When Stebbings arrived in the Cook Islands, however, he was surprised by the response to his visit to Avarua, on the island of Rarotonga. Over the five-day period he was there, forty people from throughout the Cook Islands presented themselves to receive their blessing.

Stebbings explained that patriarchal blessings are given to worthy members of the Church who desire to receive one. “This blessing is intended to be like a personal compass, which can help guide a person in the decisions they make throughout their life,” he said.

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According to the Church’s website, “Blessings are given by a patriarch, a man called by Church leaders specifically to give such blessings. The patriarch places his hands on the head of the recipient and gives the blessing by speaking aloud the words he receives through divine revelation.”

“As a patriarch, I have no blessings to give,” Stebbings said. “But when I place my hands upon a person’s head, I receive inspiration and revelation for them by the power of the Holy Spirit, which then becomes their blessing.”

The words of the blessing are transcribed into a permanent record so the recipient can have a written copy to study throughout their life. There is no set age for receiving a patriarchal blessing, but recipients should be of sufficient age and maturity to understand its significance.

“These blessings are not to be neatly folded away and forgotten, and they’re not to be framed or published,” Stebbings said. “It is to be read, followed and loved, and it will see a person through their darkest nights, and guide them through life’s many stages.”

Normally, a patriarch may give two or three blessings in a week. The process of giving a blessing usually includes a short interview before the blessing is pronounced, about ten to fifteen minutes in length, which gives the patriarch an opportunity to get to know the person who has come to receive one. The actual time needed to give the blessing can take from 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the time it takes for the patriarch to receive the revelatory inspiration necessary to pronounce it.

So how did this experience in the Cook Islands come about? In February 2023, Elder Doneal and Sister Claudia White arrived in the Cook Islands from Mapleton, Utah, USA, to begin their missionary service. While in an early morning scripture study class for youth, they noticed that fourteen class members told their instructor they had never received a patriarchal blessing. The instructor asked the White’s if they knew how a patriarch could be engaged to give those blessings, since one did not live in the Cook Islands.

After contacts were made with Church leaders in New Zealand, Stebbings was authorized to travel to the Cook Islands to give what was expected to be 15 to 20 blessings. But the response to his coming was far more than that.

By the end of the five-day visit, 40 blessings had been given. The oldest person to receive one was 74, and the youngest was 12. The timing of the arrival of Stebbings was also a tender mercy in another way, as it coincided with a school holiday, thus allowing young people to come from other parts of the Cook Islands to receive their blessings. 

For example, a group of youth from the island of Mangaia had come to Rarotonga for a soccer tournament. Because of the availability of the Patriarch, these youth were among those able to receive their patriarchal blessings while on Rarotonga, where the tournament was being held. Youth also came from far away Aitutaki Island.

Stebbings and his wife, Kathy, who functions as his scribe, began each day early in the morning and typically finished late each evening. Working as quickly as time allowed, Stebbings performed on average eight blessings per day.

In the aftermath of his visit, it was learned that there are more people on these islands who look forward to receiving their patriarchal blessings in the future, once a patriarch is approved to return. They will be anxiously waiting and preparing for the day when one may again come to their island land.

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